Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi,
I know this may be a silly question, and possibly a little premature but here goes.

I/We would love to have home grown fresh veg on our christmas plates this year, I mean things like Cabbage, peas, parsnips, carrots etc you know the good old traditional christmas dinner.

What I would love to know is it it feasable to plant any items now so they will be ready in time or am I too late ??

TIA

*waits for some dead clever to come along cos I was gonna ask the same question too*

Hehehehe,, well seing as I am just starting with the grow your own, we thought it would be nice to have it at christmas!!

If you sow some carrot in containers in the next few weeks they will be ready for Christmas dinner, you can move them to a sheltered spot if the weather gets rotten later in the year. I should think brocolli sown now would be okay too - check the seed packets for info as different types grow at different speeds. Kale and chard can also be sown soon for December harvesting. I think sprouts should have been started earlier and not sure about cabbage and cauli - hoping that my plantlets will grow nicely once they get planted out and give a harvest for Christmas. Potatoes can be planted in containers in about August for new spuds in the middle of the winter (again these have to be moved about to keep them frost-free). Peas and beans are best frozen and kept for the big day.

Hope that helps.

__________________
Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Thanks Shirl,,yum,, first time for years I am actually looking forward to christmas,, well christmas dinner anyway, I dislike christmas on a whole, too commercialised for my liking,, and TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO expensive , when do you sugest I plant the turkey ?, now that would be a special dinner, home grown turkey,,

Work out what you would like and then see what is not to late to get in. New potatoes should be planted in tubs at end of this month for Xmas new spuds. Sprouts need to go in in the next few weeks, may need to get plants from GC. Peas would be difficult. Carrots sown now will be good for Xmas. May just be a bit late for parsnips but still worth a go. What else do you fancy.

Ian

I think you'd be ok to sow leeks now as well, as long as you preferred a lot of smaller ones rather than a few whoppers IYKWIM.

I am going to freeze some peas and beans, but also sow some peas in the late summer (well, end July) and see if I get lucky on those. I know last year I had pods ready at the right time but they had been tunnelled so most peas had a brown mark on them. Will net them well and hope for better this year.

Our garden supplies shop have said to ring them at teh end of June about seed spuds for Christmas - I am planning on using a large compost sack.

If you have a greenhouse, you might get lucky on salad leaves as well for the starters etc. (That might also be helpful for peas too if you have space early enough).

And I think if you were really quick, you might just about get some squashes growing as well.

Sorry, no idea about parsnips.

Great, was not such a silly question afterall , no greenhouse though unfortunately, but may get one of the walk in ones from wilkinsons,, may last the season ?

Chain it down well!!

__________________
Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

We have a tradition of having our own frozen broad beans with Christmas dinner. We usually have a few parsnips, some Jerusalem artichokes (too late for this year though) and greens of whatever variety is ready. With various kales and winter cabbages there's usually something to cut at. Sprouts are traditional - my purple sprout plants are about 8" high at the moment. You can probably still get a tray of these and other brassicas at garden centres. You can save a few of your own new potatoes for Christmas new spuds. Put them in the bottom of the salad box in the fridge (with a mousetrap or someone will eat them!) and plant again early August. They will grow till the frosts cut them down but that should be long enough. You could put them in pots in the greenhouse when the weather closes in to continue growing actively for a bit longer. Knock them out of the pot on Christmas morning and off you go!

May Santa bring you all you wish for!

__________________
Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 17th - The Big Dig

Flum,

does that mean that, even if the frost has gotten the foliage, if the spuds themselves have grown enough, they will be ok in their pots?

Chillimad - not a dumb question at all. Have a look at the "rule the roost" section - if you have space, there might be useful stuff there about rearing your own bird (I don't go there as I would only be tempted and I definitely don't have space for fowl).

And one other idea for early prep - why not give people pressies that you have made yourself? I am giving all of my aunts and uncles a handknitted scarf each (they all open their pressies together in my grandparents house) this year, so have started working on those. And last year, I made a good few foodie pressies - jars of green tomato chutney featured, as well as homemade sweets and biscuits and cafe mocha mix. If I get enough chillis or herbs this year, I will make some flavoured oils and vinegars, and possibly also some bottles of goodness like limoncello. If you are into other crafts, you could do those - imagine pictures made from your own pressed flowers with just a nice frame around it - a few quid for the frame but the summer brought alive in the depths of winter gloom, for example. Cuts the cost drastically and most people love them as they recognise the thought and effort behind them - rather than spending tonnes on stuff people aren't too bothered about anyway.

OK - getting off my "Christmas freaks and dossers" high horse now......

Unfortunately no space, would love to give it a go though, Read somewhere that it is ok to keep birds on allotments ?

Now chilli chutney,, there's an Idea !!

Yes, it's a bit like storing things in a clamp - or leaving your parsnips in the ground. Slugs are the enemy but if you're using pots, they're ok.

__________________
Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 17th - The Big Dig

Woo hooooo - am deffo off to buy some seed spuds so when they come in!!!!!